Fence-making machine.



A. c. MI LLS. FENCE MAKING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 28' 19l2. 1,146,194.

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A. C. MILLS. FENCE MAKING MACHINE.

/ APPLICATION FILED OCT. 28, 1912. 1,146,194. 7 I

Patented July 13,1915.

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A. C. MILLS.

FENCE M AKING MACHINE.

1,146,194. APPLICATION FILED OCT. 23, 1912.

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FENCE MAKING MACHINE.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 2 s, 1912. 1, 146, 1 94. Patented July 13, 1915.

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'rnn s'r ANSON C. MILLS, OF JACKSON, MI(JIE-IJIG-fhlil'.

FENCE-MAKING MACHINE.

Application filed October 23, 1912. Serial No. 728,148.

To all whom it may concern Be it known. that I, Anson C. MtLL's, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Jackson, in the county of Jackson and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fence-Making Machines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to improvements in fence making machines, and more particularly to that part of the machine which feeds the stay Wire of the fence to a position where it is attached to the line wires of the same, and its object is to provide mechanism which will rapidly and automatically perform this operation, and which will grip the stay wire firmly and hold it rigidly in position until the operation of attaching it to the line wires has been completed, and to provide the device with various other new and useful features as hereinafter more fully described, and ,particularly pointed out in the claims.

Heretofore it has been customary in fence making machines which make a fence of the so called stifi' stay type to first out 011' these stay wires and drop them in position, they being guided to the proper place by various means but not being grippedrigidly and held firmly in position. In using this form of stay wire feed it is necessary to first straighten and remove all kinks and bends from the wire so that it will be perfectly straight when it is fed into the machine. This is objectionable because the wire can not be fed so rapidly through the straightener as is desired and it requires the addition of the straightening device to the mechanism. Furthermore, it is customary to use galvanized wire in making these fences and the straightening devices tend to remove the galvanized coating from the wire. By my newly invented feed mechanism these objections are entirely overcome as the wire may be fed-asrapidly as desired directly from the coil into a guide which prevents it from bending or kinking in any way, thus obviating the use of any straightener; It is then out 011' and delivered into a series of grippers on the ends of arms which oscillate and carry the wire into the path of a second series of grippers which automatically move. forward and grip the wire, removing it from thej firstnamed grippers'on the arms and carrying it to the position where it is fastened to the line wires, holding it straight and securely in place until theoperation is completed. lhe device is also provided with various other new and useful features of construction and arrangement as will more fully appear by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which; t

Figure 1 is a vertical section of a portion of a fence making machine to which my invention is applied, Fig. 2 is a rear view of a portion of the same, Fig. 3 is an end elevation of a part of the machine showing the mechanism which oscillates the dump shaft, Fig. 4 is a horizontal sectionof one end of the dump shaft showing theguide through which the wire enters the same, Fig. 5- is a transverse section on the line 55 of Fig. 4 illustrating the means for cutting off the'wire, Fig.6 is a transverse section of the dump shaft and cover plate showing one of the clamps which are placed at intervals along the shaft to prevent the separation of the cover plate and the shaft,

Fig. 7 is a vertical section of the means. for oscillating the shaft which carries the feeding arms, Fig. 8 is a transverse sectional elevation on the line 88 of Fig. 2, Fig. 9 is a transverse section through the dump shaft showing the stop collar thereon, Fig. 10 is a detail of one of the wire feeding arms in position to receive the wire from the dump shaft, Fig. 11 shows the dump shaft oscillated to feed the wire into the gripper at the end of the feeding arm, Fig. 12 is a front elevation of a portion of the dump shaft and cover plate with a part of the cover plate broken away, and one of the wire feeding arms in raised position, Fig. 13 shows one of the feeding arms shifted to carry the wire into the path of the reciprocating grippers, and Fig. 14: shows the wire carried forwardby the reciprocating grippers and in position to be attached to the line wires of the fence.

Like numbers refer to like parts in'all 0f the figures. 1

1 represents the frame of'the fence making machine which is provided with a fixed cross beam 2 on which are mounted the stationary portions 3 of the dies by which the stay wires are attached to the line wires of the fence. A reciprocable beam 4 carries the movable portions 5 of the above-mentioned dies and is adapted to slide in ways v6 in the frame to bring the two portions of the dies together at the proper time to clamp the stay wires and line wires between them. This beam 4 is preferably operated by means of a toggle lever 7 which is actuated through the connecting link 8 by an arm 9 which is operated by a cam wheel (not shown) which rotates with the main shaft 10 of the machine.

The machine is also provided with a vertically slidable beam 11 which carries the punches by which the staples that are used to attach the stay wires to the line wires are forced into the dies. The above-mentioned parts of the machine are no part of this invention and are mentioned only as coacting therewith.

12 is a dump shaft which extends transversely across the machine being journaled in bearings 13 and 1 1 on the main frame. A channel 15 is cut longitudinally of the shaft in its forward surface and a series of transverse recesses 15 are also provided which intersect the channel. Guide blocks 16 are secured in the channel between the recesses. These guide blocks are preferably made of hardened steel and have alined grooves cut in their outer surface of sufficient width and depth to receive the wire, these grooves being tapered or funnel shaped at the end at which the wire enters.

17 is a cut-off die which guides the wire into the guide blocks and over the edge of which the wire is cut off by means of a blade 18 which is mounted in a holder 19 on the dump shaft and which oscillates with the same.

20 and 21 are respectively a guide tube and clamping nut which guide the wire into the cut-off die 17.

22 is an arm fixed on one end of the dump shaft outside the frame of the machine which arm is operated to oscillate the said shaft by means of the lever 23 connected to the arm 22 by a rod 24 actuated by a cam wheel 25 which rotates with the main shaft 10 of the machine and engages one end of the lever 23. A spring 26 is attached to the opposite end of the lever to return it to its normal position. An adjustable stop 27 limits the return movement of this arm and also the return movement of the dump shaft. A concave cover plate 28 partially surrounds the dump shaft and when the shaft is in its normal or receiving position the lower edge of this cover plate overlaps the grooves in the guide blocks 16 and retains the wire therein as it is fed longitudinally into the grooves by the usual means (not shown). This cover plate is provided at intervals with clips 29 which are attached to it and which partially surround the dump shaft to maintain close relation of the cover plate and shaft. The cover plate is kept from rotating by a slotted clip 30 attached to the end of the plate adjacent to the bearing 13 and a clamping bolt 31 projecting from an extension 32 on the bearing and through the slot in the clip to adjustable hold the plate in any desired position. By this adjustment the lower edge of the plate may be arranged to just nicely cover the grooves in the guide blocks when the dump shaft is in normal posltion.

This invention is adapted to be used on a fence making machine of an adjustable or universal type or in other words one which may be adjusted to make different widths of wire fences and which may use a varied number of line wires and consequently various lengths of stay wires, and in order to accommodate this adjustable feature of the machine the cover plate is made in sections, the permanent section being equal in length to the shortest stay wire that will be used in the machine and extension plates 28 of various lengths may be attached to the permanent plate by means of flanges 33 bolted together. A stop collar 3% having a projection as which extends within the grooves in the guide blocks to determine the length of the stay wires is also adjustable upon the dump shaft and held in adjusted position by means of a set screw 35.

36 represents arms spaced at intervals upon a rock shaft 37 and provided at their ends with wire grippers 38. These grippers are in the form of spring-actuated jaws which are tapered at their ends to permit the wire to be forced between them. When the arms are raised the grippers will swing just under the lower edge of the cover plate and will be in the recesses 15 between the guide blocks 16 as shown in Figs. 10 and 12, and as the dump shaft is oscillated as shown in Fig. 11 the wire will be cut off by blade 18 and the die 17 and forced between the jaws of the grippers, and as the shaft is oscillated the wire will be carried downward into the path of second set of reciprocating spring actuated grippers 39 carried by the beam 1.

The rock shaft 37 which carries the arms 36 is oscillated by means of a frictionally operated rack 42 which engages a segmental pinion 43 on the shaft. A slotted bar 4.4 is attached to the upper end of the rack 12 and is clamped under spring tension between a friction plate .15 and a friction face on the end of an arm 16 attached to the vertically movable beam 11 and moving therewith. A leaf spring 17 engages the friction plate 4-5 and is compressed by means of a nut 48 on a stud 19 extending through the slot in the plate 44 by means of which nut the tension of the spring and the frictional engagement of the plate may be adjusted. The oscillation of the shaft 37 is limited in both directions by meansof an arm 50 fixed on the shaft and engaging a flange 51 on the frame, in one direction, and an adjustable screw 52 in a bracket 53 in the other direction. By this arrangement the arms 36 are moved upward during the first part of the downward movement of the beam 11 until they are stopped by the arm 50. The plate 44 will now slip between the plate 45 and arm 46 during the balance of the stroke of the beam 11 allowing the arms to dwell in their upward position long enough to enable the dump shaft to deposit the wire in the grippers. As the beam begins its upward stroke the arms will be moved until stopped by the arm 50 and the plate 44 will again slip allowing the arms 36 to remain stationary while the grippers 39 move forward and remove the wire from the grippers 38.

The reciprocating grippers 39 mounted on the beam 4 are located so that they will be adjacent to the ends of the arms 36 when the same are lowered. These grippers consist of a lower plate 40 bolted to the beam 4 and forming the lower jaws of the grippers, being somewhat longer than the upper jaws 41 of the same. The upper jaw is yieldably de pressed by means of a spring 41 and has a beveled end so that the wire may be forced under it.

The wire when carried downward by the arms 36 is laid upon the elongated lower jaw 40 ahead of the upper jaw 41. As the beam 4, which also carries the movable portions 5 of the dies, moves forward to close the dies the wire is forced between the jaws of the grippers 39 removed from the grippers 38 and carried forward to proper position between the dies where it is held firmly until the operation of attaching the wires is completed.

The operation of the device is as follows: The wire 54 which is to form the stay wire of the fence is fed longitudinally at proper intervals through the cut-off die 17 into the grooves in the guide blocks 16 beneath the cover plate 28 until it strikes the projection 34 on the stop collar 34. While this is taking place the arms 36 rise until the grippers 38 are in the recesses between the guide blocks 1.6. Ihe movement of the arms 36 will be stopped by engagement of the arm 50 with the adjusting screw 52 and the grippers will remain in raised position while the vertical beam 11 completes its downward stroke. During this time the dump shaft will be operated to cut off the wire and deposit it in the grippers 38.

The beam 11 now begins to rise and carries the rack 42 upward which rotates the rock shaft 37 and lowers the arms 36 carrying the wire downward until it rests upon the elongated lower jaws 40 of the reciprocating grippers 39. The movement of the arms is stopped at this point by engagement of the arm 50 with the flange 51 on the frame and the arms remain in this position during the balance of the up-stroke of the beam 11, which gives the grippers 39 together with the beam 4 and movable portion of the die 5 time to move forward, grip the wire, remove it from the grippers 38,- and carry it into position between the dies and hold it securely in place while the ties or fastenings are applied to secure the same to the line wires of the fence. The machine then moves the fence forward the proper space for the neXt stay wire, and the operation is automatically repeated. This device enables the machine to operate with greater speed and certainty than heretofore and will straighten a crooked wire as it is forced into the same and also hold it straight until attached to the line wires of the fence.

What I claim is:

1. In a wire fence making machine, a stay wire feeding device comprising a dump shaft having a longitudinal groove to receive a wire, a concave cover plate partially inclosing the shaft and covering the groove when the shaft is in receiving position, and means for oscillating the shaft to uncover the groove and permit the wire to move laterally out of the same. i

2. In a wire fence machine, a stay'wire feeding device comprising a dump shaft having a groove along one side and transverse recesses at intervals, a concave cover plate partially inclosing the shaft and covering the groove when the shaft is in receiving position, arms carrying grippers adapted to enter the recesses to receive a wire from the dump shaft,means for oscillating the dump shaft to deposit a wire in the grippers, and means for oscillating the arms to move the wire laterally.

3. In a wire fence making machine, a stay wire feeding device comprising a dump shaft having a longitudinal channel in one side and transverse recesses at intervals intersecting said channel, guide blocks in the channel and between the recesses, said blocks also having grooves to receive a stay wire, a concave cover plate partially inclosing the shaft and covering the grooves in the blocks, means for oscillating the shaft to uncover the grooves, arms'carrying grippers adapted to enter the recesses and to receive the stay wire, means for oscillating the arms to carry the wire laterally, and grippers to receive the wire and carry the same to place in the dies of the machine.

4. In a wire fence making machine, stay wire feeding mechanism comprising a dump shaft, a segment pinion on the shaft, a rack engaging the pinion, a reciprocating member, a slidable connection between the rack and said member, means for applying friction to said connection to move the rack during a portion of the movement of said member, stops to limit the oscillation of the shaft, arms carried by the shaft, grippers on the arms, and means for placing a stay Wire in the grippers.

5. In a wire fence making machine, a stay wire feeding device, comprising a se ries of arms mounted on a rock shaft, wire grippers on the arms, means for guiding the wire longitudinally into the machine and depositing it in the grippers, means for oscillating the rock shaft and arms to carry the Wire laterally, and means for removing the wire from the grippers and carrying it to position to be operated upon.

6. In a wire fence making machine, a stay wire feeding device, comprising a series of arms on a rock shaft, wire grippers on the ends of the arms, a dump shaft adj acent to the grippers on the arms when the same are in raised position, said shaft having a longitudinal groove in its surface to receive and guide the wire and transverse recesses at intervals to receive the grippers, a cover plate partially surrounding the dump shaft and normally covering the groove therein, and means for oscillating the arms to carry the Wire laterally.

7. In a wire fence making machine, a stay wire feeding device, comprising a series of arms mounted on a rock shaft, wire grippers on the ends of the arms, a dump shaft adjacent to the grippers on the arms when the same are in raised position, said shaft having a longitudinal groove to receive the wire and transverse recesses to re ceive the grippers, a cover plate partially surrounding the dump shaft and normally covering the longitudinal groove therein, means for oscillating the dump shaft, a stationary cut-off die through which the wire passes into the groove in the dump shaft, a cut-off blade fixed on the dump shaft adjacent to the cut-off die, and means for oscillating the arms to carry the Wire laterally.

8. In a wire fence making machine, a stay wire feeding device, comprising a dump shaft ournaled in the frame and having a longitudinal channel and transverse recesses, guide blocks having grooves in their outer surfaces located in the channel and between the transverse recesses, a cover plate partially surrounding the dump shaft and normally covering the grooves in the guide blocks, means for oscillating the dump shaft, arms mounted on a rock shaft having wire grippers at their ends adapted to swing into the recesses in the dump shaft, and means for oscillating the arms to carry the Wire laterally.

9. In a wire fence making machine, a stay wire feeding device, comprising a rock shaft journaled in the frame, arms provided at their ends with spring-actuated grippers mounted on the rock shaft, a segmental gear on the rock shaft, a reciproplate, means for compressing the spring, an V arm attached to the shaft and adapted to engage stops on the frame at each end of its stroke to limit the movement of the shaft, a dump shaft journaled in the frame adja cent to the wire grippers on the arms when the same are in raised position, said shaft having a longitudinal groove in its surface to receive the wire, and transverse recesses to receive the grippers, a cover plate partially surrounding the dump shaft and normally covering the groove therein, and means for oscillating the dump shaft to carry the Wire laterally.

10. In a wire fence making machine, a stay wire feeding device, comprising a series of arms mounted on a rock shaft, wire grippers on the ends of the arms, a dump shaft journaled in the frame adjacent to the wire grippers on the arms when the same are in raised position and having a longitudinal groove in its surface to receive the wire and transverse recesses at intervals to receive the grippers, a cut-off die through which the wire passes, a cut-off blade mounted on the dump shaft adjacent to the cut-0d die, a cover plate partially surrounding the dump shaft and normally covering the groove therein, an arm attached to one end of the dump shaft, a lever pivoted to the frame, a

cam wheel mounted on a rotative shaft of 1,

the machine and adapted to engage one end of the lever, a connecting rod oining the opposite end of the lever to the arm on the dump shaft, a spring attached to the lever to return it to normal position, a stop on the frame to limit the movement of the lever, and means for oscillating the arms on the rock shaft to carry the wire laterally.

- 11. In a wire fence making machine, a

stay wire feeding mechanism, comprising a series of arms spaced at intervals upon a rock shaft, Wire grippers on the ends of the arms, an oscillatory dump shaft journaled in the frame adjacent to the wire grippers on the arms when the same are in raised position and having a longitudinal groove in its surface to receive and guide the wire and transverse recesses to receive the grippers, a stationary cut-off die through which the wire passes, a cutofi blade mounted on the dump shaft adjacent to the out off die, a stationary cover plate partially surrounding the dump shaft, means for adjusting the position of the cover plate, e2;- tension cover plate members adapted to be attached to the main cover plate, clips spaced at intervals upon the cover plate and partially surrounding the dump shaft, a stop collar adjustably mounted on the dump shaft and provided with an extension which projects into the groove of the dump shaft, means for oscillating the dump shaft, and means for oscillating the rock shaft to carry the wire laterally.

12. In a wire fence making machine, a stay wire feeding device, comprising a series of arms mounted on a rock shaft, wire grippers on the ends of the arms, means for guiding the wire into the machine and depositing it in the grippers, a series of reciprocable grippers having elongated lower jaws and spring-actuated upper jaws, means for oscillating the rock shaft to carry the wire laterally and deposit it on the lower jaws of the reciprocable grippers, and means for advancing the reciprocable grippers to remove the wire from the grippers on the arms and carry it to a position to be operated upon.

13. In a wire fence making machine, a stay wire feeding device, comprising a rock shaft journaled in the frame, a segmental gear on the rock shaft, a reciprocable rack meshing with the gear, an arm projecting from a reciprocating member of the machine and provided with a friction surface at its outer end, a friction plate opposite the friction surface on the end of the arm, a bar interposed between the friction surface and the friction plate and attached to the rack, means for clamping the friction plate against the bar, an arm fixed on the rock shaft adapted to engage stops on the frame to limit the movement of the shaft, a series of arms mounted on the rock shaft and provided with wire grippers on their ends, a reciprocable dump shaft located adjacent to Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the the wire grippers when the same are in raised position and provided with a longitudinal channel in its surface and transverse recesses at intervals to ,receive the wire grippers, guide blocks fixed in the channel between the transverse recesses and provided with grooves in their outer surfaces, a stationary cut-ofi'die through which the wire passes, a cut-off blade mounted on the dump shaft adjacent to the cut-0H die, a stationary cover plate partially surrounding the dump shaft and normally covering the grooves in the guide blocks, means for adjusting the position of the cover plate, extension covcr plate members adapted to be attached to the main cover plate, clips spaced at intervals on the cover plate and partially surrounding the dump shaft, an adjustable stop collar on the dump shaft provided with a projection which extends into the grooves in the guide blocks, an arm on the outer end of the dump shaft, a lever pivoted to the frame, a cam wheel mounted on a rotating shaft of the machine and adapted to engage one end of the lever, a connecting rod joining the opposite end of the lever with the arm on the dump shaft, a spring to return the lever to normal position, an adjustable stop to limit the movement of the lever, a series of reciprocable wire grippers having elongated lower jaws and spring-actuated upper jaws, andmeans for advancing the reciprocable jaws to remove the wire from the grippers on the arms and carry it to a position to be operated upon, substantially as described.

a In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ANSON C. MILLS. Witnesses:

G. A. SGHEELE, CLARENCE H. B. Fox.

Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

